Notre Dame Alumnus, Vol. 30, No. 02 -- March-April 1952 - Archives ...

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( The Address of John H. Sheehan, Head of the Economics Department, Given at the January Caouncacanent, 1952.)
As a faculty member who has been
privileged to work with many of you,
I would like to add my congratulations
to you, the first class of 1952.
All of us proudly salute you.
You know that being a Notre
Dame alumnus carries with it many
privileges. You know also that these
privileges are accompanied by correlative
duties and responsibilities.
Like many Notre Dame classes
ahead of you, you begin new careers
—military or civilian—in a greatly
disturbed world. But like your predecessors
in these and other times of
stress, you are adequately equipped
and armed to enable you to live in
the world as it is, and to work with
others towards its improvement.
As graduates of a Catholic college,
you accept your privilege and
responsibility. You will be able to
accomplish much because you know
and have faith in your ultimate goal,
and have knowledge of proper means
for working towards intermediate and
ultimate goals.
One means that all of us must use
throughout our lives is providing ourselves
and others with a workable system
for obtaining our daily bread—
the providing of a proper economic
order. It is regarding the relationship
between the Catholic College
graduate and the Economic Order
that I wish to speak with you briefly.
To begin with, ever>' Christian,
• precisely because he is a Christian,
should be a builder; everlastingly
building and reconstructing on his
way towards Eternity with God.
Normally, while on earth, every
man is a member of a household—
his family household. And because
man is a social being, he and his
household normally live among and
cooperate with other households.
Since a community or a nation is
fundamentally a group of households,
one may refer to the United States as
a household or as "The House of
America."
In this sense, I should like to make
one fKjint in considering our Economic
Order. It is this: Economically,
there is nothing so perfect in
the House of America that it cannot
be improved, and nothing so wrong
that it cannot be repaired.
This statement impfies that: (1)
there are some things wrong; (2)
that some repairing or reconstructing
is needed; and (3) that there do
e.xist some reasonable guides and
means for reconstruction to make our
"house" more orderly, livable and
enduring.
Three groups living in the House
of America fail to think straight
about this matter. There are those
who are confused by the complexities
of modern life so that they do not
know whether our economic house is
in good order or in bad order. Then
there is the selfishly complacent
group which, living in a comfortable
wing of the house, fails to see the
crumbling foundation and sagging
roof in other parts. Finally, there
are those who see only defects and
decay, and consequently think the
house should be entirely torn down.
The confused are, of course, confounded
by the false testimony of the
complacent, as well as by the cynical
sneering of those who see only the
bad.
The straight-thinking occupants are
not victims of confusion. They see
America's Economic House as it is.
They are the Christian builders and
reconstructors. They know that no
matter how complex and seemingly
impersonal modem relationships have
become. Christian cooperation can
give us an orderly and sound economic
structure. They know that
fundamentally to live, all men must
make use of goods called the "fruits
of the earth."
. To have access to the fruits of the
earth—that is, to goods and services
—is a right every man has, just because
he is a man. This is the basic
right of private property—the right to
ownership and control of sufficient
goods and services to enable man to
live as man should live.
That there are numberless economic
occupations merely confirms the fundamental
necessity for human co---
operation. It is not bad but good
that there are miners and farmers;
lawryers and chemists; professors and
pullman porters. It is not multiplicity
of occupations that is the
cause of disorder in our house. It is
because some have forgotten that
man is always a social, dependent
being as well as an individual, independent
being; that all necessary
goods and services are for all men.
He fools himself who thinks he can
live in a sound and orderly house
any way except cooperatively. By
cooperatively, we simply mean fulfilling
one's obligations to himself and
to other members of the community,
according to his God-given abilities.
In doing so, one must both recognize,
the economic facts and also follow
the principles of economic justice.
Although some try to hide or distort
them, the economic facts are
available to those willing to dig for
them. Generally, the facts are: some
badly distributed income, some unhealthful
concentration and control of
wealth, some unbalanced wages,
prices, and profits, all causing serious
economic injustices and strife. Specifically,
many facts bear upon the
general problems. Your college training
has given you the research ability
to dig for these facts, as they change
from time to time. You need not
follow blindly the news commentators,
competent and otherwise, or the many
biased propagandists.
One specific set of facts that we
should be aware of—and of their
consequences—are the facts regarding
our present defense economy. No ordinary
situation exists. It is no time
for allowing individuals or pressure
groups to feather their nests at the
expense of the ccMounon good. Rather
it is a time for general self-saciifice
and cooperative moral restraint, with
impartial legal restraints . for those
who refuse to live up., to our common
responsibilities.
For more than...sixty years, -the
Popes in their Social Encyclicals have
ui^ntly warned us of the general
facts regarding the unsound aspects,
of our Economic Houses. They have
also given '\ii~''geneTal--principles for
Reconstruction. These Papal econmnic
teachings have repeatedly been called -
to the attention of American CathoHcs
by the archbishops and bishops of the
Administrative Board of the National
March-April, 1952 15